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Archive for January, 2009

I am Woman, Hear Me Roar

Saturday, January 31st, 2009

I am so exhausted with the multitasking. I would love to spend a week with nothing I have to do! I have been juggling the SDA conference registration, working on the 12 X 12 challenge piece and preparing and teaching a workshop and still doing the shopping, cooking and laundry for the two of us.

I must say that teaching the workshop was really a lot of fun. As usual, I over planned things. But, I wanted them to have options. There were 9 or 10 people at the class. The classroom was not ideal for spreading out and working, but the classrooms were being used for another all day program. Everyone seemed to have a great time. I think Angelina fibers were the big hit of the day!!

valentineclassroom

Here are some photos of work. They really loved the fiber postcards most of all.

valentineheartcollage

valentinemaikings

valentinestitching

This is my youngest student – 16 years old. She was great at dealing with all the mature students and teacher,

valentineyoungeststudent

valentinecollage

My friend, Diane, made this lovely valentine with bits of lime green. I love it.

valentinelimegreen

valentinelimegreenfinish

I came home and put my feet up for an hour, had some lunch and headed to the studio to finish the chair piece for the 12 X 12 reveal tomorrow. I have been working on it all week and had a breakthrough yesterday. I had it done except for fusing and stitching. I am very pleased with the end result. Be sure to check in tomorrow for the reveal.

I have to get cleaned up. Mr C is taking me out to dinner. Next on my plate is a major clean up of the studio and reorganizing and setting into the newly painted office. I also plan to finish my piece for Virginia Speigel’s Fiber Art for a Cause Reverse Auction. I think she has been ready to give up on me, but she knew that I have a very busy schedule. She has gone to Texas to be an artist in residence so I will have the piece ready for her when she returns.

Thermofax Day

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

I was up and out of the house early today. I had to have a fasting blood draw. Four hours later, I got a message from the lab. All my tests were normal. My cholesterol is now down to 160 and the HDL was 54 so my ratio is 2.96 – not bad!

Yesterday, I had a great time doing another gallery talk to about 12 people. The group that arranged the talk took me out to lunch afterwards. When I got home, I had a message from one of them and they had decided to buy the Dome of the Rock piece for their church. Woohoo! I have now sold 5 pieces out of the 13. Just feel so blessed, that is all I can say. I have been somewhat overwhelmed by the lovely comments about my art.

Today, my goal was to get caught up on conference registrations and make some thermofax screens. I accomplished both. I had a bit of a melt down when I couldn’t find the thermofax screen fabric. My studio and office are still and disorganized mess from the renovation and the frenzy of work in December. We finally found it.

I made a heart for the class on Saturday. Judy sent me this design from some freezer paper stencils that she had made. I love this.

valentinescreenprint

I also made a screen of this fancy bird.I thought it would be cute to put a heart in its beak.

fancybirdscreenprint

I also did this screen. You are only seeing a portion of it. What is it?

guesswhatscreenprint

Where are the Sparkly Red Shoes?

Monday, January 26th, 2009

overtherainbow

Sometimes I don’t know how my art happens. I started playing around with some of my dye-painted fabric that is in the background. I pulled out some fused silk pieces and started cutting some shapes. I ended up with squarish pieces. Then I added that black X . I really liked the silliness of that polka dotted X sitting there. I used rainbow hand-dyed Perle cotton for the seed stitching. I love how that looks as the color changes.

I was going to name it X Marks the Spot, but I was totally into the feeling of being in a happy, silly and colorful place. It seemed like it might be what it is like over the rainbow. This is a small piece — 9.5 inches square. It is for the SAQA at 20 exhibit. Each piece will be mounted with a 12 inch square mat with an 8 inch opening. After touring around, some of them will become part of the permanent collection of the Quilt Study Center at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. I barely made the deadline. I had to Fedex this today.

Tomorrow morning, I am doing another gallery talk for my show for about 10 people, some of them are Portland area people who were on the trip to Israel. It will be fun to do this when I am feeling healthy. They are taking me out to lunch afterwards. On Sunday, I was finally able to sit and look at my work and really enjoy seeing it all around the room. I am still getting such positive feedback. The Arts Commission has been doing gallery shows for some time, but they are normally, paintings, watercolors or photography. My fiber work seems to draw people in for a closer look. Many people are very intrigued with the stitching and surface design.

On Saturday, I have 9 people coming for my fiber collage class. We are going to do Valentines. I think that will be fun.

I have to get serious about the 12 X 12 chair challenge. I also just realized that I get to choose the next theme. I am collecting ideas — got one?

Feelin’ Fine

Monday, January 26th, 2009

Thank God for the miracle of antibiotics. I felt better by Friday. I made it back to WW after a month of being snowed in, show stuff and car repairs. I was up 4 ounces – not bad. I also gave up on growing out my hair and went in to see Joseph and got it cut. Here is my latest I-book Photo-booth self portrait.  Oops, no earrings – naked ears!!

newhaircut

I said I wouldn’t post again until I had something creative to show. This afternoon, I started a piece titled “Somewhere, Over the Rainbow.” Here is a sneak peek. I have enjoyed doing some seed stitching with rainbow perle cotton.

rainbowsneakpeek

Yesterday, we had a family birthday dinner for Mr C. He finished the painting of my office so that he could show it off. I still have some reorganizing to do, but here is a sneak peek. I really love the way the room is shaping up — so fresh and light and airy. It no longer feels like a dungeon.

officesneakpeek

M & M settled down to watch Myth Busters on the Discovery Channel.

mileswatchtvmiawatchingtv

We found out that two bull myths are false. They are not angered by the color red and they walked daintily through a china shop. Mia says the show should be called Myth Blowups!!

The Barnes family gifted Mr C with this beautiful succulent.

cssucculent

I made a delicious dinner of salmon roasted on a bed of potatoes, parsnips and peas and Mr C’s favorite — Carrot Cake.

Today was cold. We awoke to snow covering everything, but this afternoon, the sun came out. Maggie loves to sleep in the sun as it streams in the living room windows.

maggieinthesun

Finally, I just want to say that I am loving the changes that are coming from the Obama White House. What a difference. He has such a big job on his hands, but I think he is off to a great start. I took this photo on the TV when he was making his inaugural speech.

obamaspeech

Thursday This and That with Some Whine

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

Today was a special day because Mr C was born on this day. He is my rock; he is a great dad and a super grandpa.

mrc

Today, he took a break from the painting of my office, and we took off for an art date at the Portland Art Museum and dinner at one of Portland’s finest dining establishments — Higgins.

I have been extremely slothful. I finally gave in and called the doc this morning. I started on Azithromycin tonight. I just couldn’t shake the sinus thing with my holistic treatments. I am getting so behind creatively. I signed up for Laura’s Idea to Image class and I haven’t done a single assignment. I need to get a chair themed 12 X 12 piece done, I have to prepare for a class I am teaching next Saturday, I need to finish the Fiber Arts for a Cause piece, and so on and so on.

Enough whining. I still have some Yes We Did stickers. e-mail me your snail mail at gerrie at gericondesigns.com if you would like one.

I will be back when I have something creative to share.